While the term may refer to spoken English, it is more often used to describe written English. Engrish can be found in many places, including signs, menus, and advertisements. Terms such as Japanglish, Japlish or Janglish for Japan, Konglish for Korea, and Chinglish for China are more specific terms for Engrish.

Roots of the phenomenon

In Japanese Engrish, there are two contributing factors:

First is the great difference between Japanese and English. Japanese word order, the frequent omission of subjects in Japanese, the absence of articles, a near-complete absence of consecutive consonants, as well as difficulties in distinguishing /l/ and /r/, or /th/ and /s/ sounds, all contribute to substantial problems using Standard English effectively. Indeed, Japanese have tended to score comparatively poorly on international tests of English.